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Preliminary test of a local tomato cultivar as a rootstock to control two soil-borne plant pathogens

Authors

T. Arwiyanto, B. Triman, S. Sulandari, S. Suryanti

Abstract

Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum and root knot caused by Meloidogyne incognita are serious diseases of tomato in Indonesia.
Control of these diseases is difficult because of genetic variability of the bacterial pathogen and the wide host range of both pathogens.
Grafting on resistant rootstocks has been reported by many researchers to control these important pathogens.
A local cultivar of tomato, with ribbed shape ('ATT2015'), proven resistant against bacterial wilt, was tested as a rootstock to control bacterial wilt and root knot.
A tomato rootstock, 'H-7996', and an eggplant rootstock, 'Eg-203', were used for comparison purposes.
The rootstocks were grafted with a commercial cultivar, and then planted into vinyl pots, one plant per pot.
The pathogens were inoculated 1 week after transplanting (50 mL, 107 cfu mL-1 of bacterial pathogen suspension and 15 mL water containing 2500 nematode larvae per plant). The plot was arranged in a completely randomized design with three replications, 10 plants per replication.
The results indicated that 'ATT2015' showed a similar degree of protection against bacterial wilt compared with 'H-7996' and 'Eg-203'. At 3 weeks after inoculation, the disease index in the non-grafted plants was 90, and the index was the same until 5 weeks after inoculation.
In grafted plants, the disease index were significantly lower compared with those of non-grafted plants.
Root injury caused by nematodes was lowest in 'H-7996' grafted plants, followed by 'Eg-203' grafted plants and 'ATT2015' grafted plants while, in non-grafted plants, root injury reached higher levels.
The number of galls per plant was lowest in 'Eg-203' grafted plants, followed by 'H-7996' grafted plants, 'ATT2015' grafted plants, and the non-grafted plants.
A local cultivar of tomato such as 'ATT2015' can be used as a rootstock for grafting to reduce bacterial disease and root knot incidence.